Massive Black's Transient in Review

The graphic novel,
"Transient", (ISBN: 978-0-615-54471-7) also billed as
"Transient Man" in some places, is self-described as:

"Transient is a black comedy about a homeless man
who's visions lead him to believe he is an inter-dimensional savior
of humanity, on a mission to save the universe.

Is he indeed the "one", chosen by mystical divine
forces to embark on a crusade against ultimate evil, or a hopeless
lunatic, aimlessly wandering the streets of San Francisco?

Transient is a spoof on the hero's journey that's part
Men in Black, part Raising Arizona, flavored with
liberal portions of Ghostbusters and John Steinbeck. It is
a ballad to the city by the bay, and a heartfelt tale of the
sacrifices one man will take for his love for his family, his
friends, and all of humankind."

What it really is, is 212 large format full-color pages of a
hallucinogenic story on acid - in rich detail. In fact, that's kind
of how the story starts out. There's a lot of hidden humor in the
story. It should be read somewhat as a spoof on the more
atypical hero vs. evil. There's some situational humor, stoner
humor and a few inside jokes that revolve around Massive Black (the S.F. based publisher and concept
studio founded by the book's author, Justin Kaufman).

Click on the images in this review to see a higher
resolution version. You need to check them out. The high
resolution versions are pretty amazing. They're also more
representative of what you'll find in the actual printed book.
There's a lot of detail in each cell and it's worth seeing
them up close. Go ahead, click on one! Special thanks to Massive Black for providing these and also to Ballistic
Publishing for helping me get in touch with everyone to make
this review possible!

Transient

I really loved the artwork in Transient. The details
are astounding. Justin Kaufman is an exceptionally talented artist,
and it shows. There's a lot of skill and a lot of heart put into
each cell, which really helps tell a richly detailed story in the
life of our homeless hero, Bob.

Unfortunately, the only thing I found I didn't like about
Transient - was the story itself. Even after reading the
book cover-to-cover in a single sitting and running it over in my
head for over a month (my apologies to the publisher), I never
really warmed up to it.

The humor, while it made me chuckle in places, wasn't the usual
laugh-out-loud variety. Or at least not for me. The story was
pretty cracked out. There were many inexplicable events, and what
appears to be the general requirement for LSD when reading parts of
it. Even so, it's internally consistent within the universe of Bob,
who is either truly gifted in seeing creatures on another plane of
existence, or is suffering form schizophrenia (the book leaves this
to the reader to decide).

The fact that the protagonist is the least expected of all
heroes - a homeless man teetering on the border of total insanity
is an unusual twist. I loved the concept, but in many ways it felt
like the book glorified Bob and his friends for everything from
abandoning his job to walking out on his family in the name of the
greater good - to theft, substance abuse, trespassing, gross public
indecency, assault with a bodily fluid... lots of crazy,
crazy stuff goes on in Bob's head, and indeed his world.
In an ironic sense, the story is very real.

While Transient is probably not something I'd get
little Timmy for Christmas, if you're looking for a pretty
psychedelic story to read yourself - backed up by bar-none the best
painting I've seen in a long while - look no further. You'll never
look at the local homeless guy the same!

The inspiration for Transient was kind of interesting
to read about. To roughly paraphrase: If you've ever seen a
homeless person rambling to themselves in the street while pushing
a grocery cart full of junk and wondered, "how does a person
end up like that?," Transient offers one possible
answer.

The conflicts in Transient are mostly resolved at the
end, but leave open the possibility of a sequel. Damn those pidgins
and the evil bird man!

The Art

The art is the real heart and soul of the book and it is
fantastic throughout. Justin Kaufman is an exceptionally
talented artist, and it shows (again, click one to see a higher
resolution image to really understand). How he manages to tease so
much detail, such rich texture and subtle tones in both light and
shadow out of each stroke is amazing. From a photographer's
perspective, there were several shots in Transient that,
as a photograph, would be worthy of award in composition, subject
and lighting.

Mr.Kaufman is also a very talented storyteller. Despite never
warming up to the story that was told, the talent used to tell it
was quite evident. He put a lot of heart into the book, and for
that alone I applaud him. It's his first book, so I have to grant
him some slack - but not for the artwork. It rocks all by itself
and is worth checking out (You hear that? I grant you a pass!).

The visual fluidity made it trivial to envision the book as if
it were a live-action movie. Who knows? Maybe one day it will be.
It was daunting to try and keep in mind that the hundreds of richly
detailed cells were drawn by a single individual. They are
consistent in both style and quality throughout. I can't even
imagine the number of hours he must have put in to create them
all.

Spoiler alert

I tried to resist, but can't! One scene bothered me more than
any other. It was a scene near the end in which Bob's son basically
forgives the him for ditching the family. His son mentions that he
hated his father for years for running away, but at no point in the
book can I recall this anger ever really coming out. In every scene
featuring his son, he seems eager to forgive his father for
choosing the life of a glorified vagabond.

In many ways, I wish his son held resentment toward his father.
It would have provided continued personal conflict into the
potential sequel. I'm still not certain why the protagonist chose
sleeping in the alley and dumpster diving as a requirement to save
mankind, but save mankind he did, and we're all very thankful for
it.

Bottom Line

The visuals are inarguably fantastic, the story is well told -
the story itself I personally had trouble relating to, but it was
still entertaining.

You can check out almost every page on the Transient website,
for free, to determine if it's a flavor you'll like. The art itself
is worth a closer look - check it out:

All supporting images are copyright, and
cannot be
copied, printed, or reproduced in any manner without written
permission

Kurt Foster (Modulok) falls somewhere between
programmer and visual effects artist. When not sifting through
technical manuals, he takes on freelance roles in both programming
and visual effects, attempting to create a marriage of technical
knowledge with artistic talent. He can be seen helping out on the
Renderosity Maya forum, when time permits.

December 10, 2012

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